Ornaments exist in a great variety of designs, shapes, sizes, and construction materials. They can be flat or three-dimensional. They can be made from nearly any material, including paper, glass, plastic, wood, fabric, and metal. Depending upon the fabrication material, they can convey different aesthetic impressions.
A desired aesthetic impression may be achievable only in certain materials and deficiencies may be associated with those materials, such as combustibility, fragility, sensitivity to heat and humidity, and difficulty of cleaning or repair. Metal ornaments suffer least from most of these disadvantages, but tend not to lend themselves to impart subtle aesthetic impressions such as laciness, because they are frequently produced by stamping and casting processes which yield crude or heavy-looking products. Also, such processes often limit the variety of possible designs, due to the expense of dies or molds necessary in their construction or manufacture.
Metal ornaments offer the advantages of being non-flammable, durable, tolerant of heat and humidity, and easy to clean. Accordingly, intricate light weight metal ornaments made by a process which imparts a nonmetallic lacy aesthetic quality in a variety of designs are very desirable.